Elevated parking/storage device (with no effect on existing ground parking/storage space)

ABSTRACT

A multi-level parking or storage device is designed to park/store goods to upper decks independently from the goods stored on the ground level. The device is designed in such a way that a platform can be moved up and down at left of the existing parking/storage space; and it can be moved left and right over the existing parking/storage space. When the platform is directly over the existing ground parking/storage space, there are only sets of additional posts grouped together and situated at the inner side of the back end of the existing parking/storage space. This design can multiply the efficiency of an existing parking/storage space without sacrificing or changing the current utility of the ground space.

(2) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] In big cities around the world, such as New York City, N.Y.,parking space is in demand and expensive. Multi-deck parking is a way toincrease the efficiency of a parking lot. Many multi-deck parkingproducts are currently available and they sacrifice some existing groundparking space for maneuvering the car on to or off from the upper deck;or the car in the upper deck cannot be moved without moving the carunderneath first and that is very inconvenient. In some cases, theparking structure makes it more difficult to maneuver the car in or outof the ground parking space than without the added parking structure.This invention allows parking or retrieving a car to or from the upperdeck directly above the ground parking space by using the existingparking lot design and does not require additional space for carmaneuvering; also, the car on the upper deck can be moved independentlyfrom the car underneath. It actually doubles or triples the capacity ofa parking lot if a double deck or triple deck parking is used. Moreimprovement is possible if numerous deck parking is chosen. The samedevice can also be used for multi-level storage.

[0002] Prior art includes:

[0003] Multi-floor parking facility—it would need space to built a rampto reach the higher level. Valuable space is sacrificed to build theramp.

[0004] Vertically movable platform—it can be used in the existingparking space to increase the parking capacity. However, during parkingor retrieving the car from the upper deck, the car that is parkedunderneath needs to be removed first.

[0005] Rotational parking structure—it has multiple platforms in twolevels and structured like a rectangle. Each platform can be moved up ordown, and left or right if the space to be moved to is not occupied. Inthis design, an empty space is always required in order to move carsaround. This reduces the space usage efficiency to less than double theexisting capacity, and therefore it is not as effective as the inventiondisclosed here. In additional, the rotational parking structure has fourposts, and it only allows parking or retrieving a car to or from theplatform at the farthest right or left position. Those posts also makeit difficult to drive a car in or out of a parking platform.

(3) BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] This invention is described in FIG. 1. It has a platform (F) thatcan be moved vertically (up and down) above the driveway in the parkinglot; and the platform can be moved horizontally (left and right) abovethe existing parking space. A car is parked to the upper position bydriving it onto the platform located on the driveway, move the platformup until it reaches the position that is high enough to clear the car onthe existing parking space, then move the platform horizontally to theposition that is directly above the existing parking space.

[0007]FIG. 2 shows the platform being in the up position. When a car onthe upper position is retrieved, the platform is moved horizontally fromdirectly above the existing parking space to the space above thedriveway, and then it is moved down to the ground and then the car canbe driven away.

[0008] In this invention the platform (F) is attached to a frame (E).The platform moves up or down along the roller posts (RP), and theroller posts (RP) move left or right while carrying the platform withthem.

(4) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009]FIG. 1 is a sketch of the invention. F is the platform and it isattached to a frame (E). There are two roller posts (RP) connected by aturning axle (T1). The roller post has a “U” shaped cross section. Theframe (E) is equipped with sets of rollers, as shown in the Front Viewof the roller post, and the rollers sit inside of the roller post. The“U” shaped roller posts serve as tracks for the platform to move up anddown along the roller posts. In this sketch, the platform (F) is in thedown position. When the platform is in the up position, as shown in FIG.2, the platform and the frame are carried by the roller posts, which canbe moved right and left while being guided by the two arms (A) that aresupported by the two posts (P). This design allows the platform (F) tobe moved up and down when it is at the left position and moved right andleft when it is at the up position.

[0010] Description of the detailed design is discussed later.

(5) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] This invention is a parking or storage equipment that allowsmultiple levels of parking or storage without needing additional groundspace. It actually can improve the parking capacity of any given parkingfacility by n times if the number of decks built on top of the groundlevel is n.

[0012]FIG. 1 describes this invention when only one deck is built on topof an existing parking space. In the following, parking application isused to describe the invention. The same idea applies to storageapplications in different scales.

[0013] A platform (F) that is designed to carry the weight of a car isattached to a frame (E). There are two roller posts (RP) connected by aturning axle (T1). The roller posts have wheels at the bottom and can bemoved left and right on the ground, as shown in the drawing at lowerright corner of FIG. 1. The ground can be equipped with tracks for easymovement if desired. A beam can be used to connect the two roller postsat the top to strengthen the structure if desired.

[0014] The roller post has a “U” shaped cross section. At the two endsof the frame E, there are sets of rollers attached to E. These rollerssit inside of the “U” shaped roller post, as shown in the front view ofthe roller post at the lower left corner of FIG. 1, and they can bedriven to travel up and down along the roller posts by a movingmechanism D1, which in turn allows the platform to travel up and down.The turning axle T1 assures the rollers in those roller posts travel atthe same pace.

[0015] There are two horizontal arms (A) sticking out to the left from atwo posts structure (P) above the ground. The arm is equipped with amoving mechanism D2, such as a motor and a sky rail car as described inthe upper left corner of FIG. 1. The sky rail car can be moved left andright along the arm by the motor.

[0016] The distance between the sky rail car's left wheel and the skyrail car's left end is a little bit longer than the width of the rollerpost. Therefore, the sky rail car can travel beyond the left end of thearm by a distance a little bit longer than the width of the roller post.A turning axle T2 connects the two sky rail cars to move them at thesame pace.

[0017] The roller post (RP) is connected to the left side of the skyrail car. When the motor drives the sky rail car traveling along the armand carrying the roller post to the farthest position to the left, theroller post is situated right outside of the left margin of the groundparking space, while the left end of the arm remains inside the margin.

[0018] Due to the supporting of the roller post, the bending force onthe “arm” incurred by the weight carried on the platform would notchange with the position of the roller post.

[0019] When the sky rail car travel to the right, and reaches itsfarthest position on the right with the roller post, there is nothingsticking out beyond the left margin of the ground parking space.However, at this position, the right ends of the sky rail cars stick outto the right.

[0020] When a car is to be parked on the upper position, the car isdriven onto the platform at ground position, then the platform is pulledup along the roller posts to the up position. The height of the upposition is designed to clear the car parked on the ground level. Theplatform is then moved with the roller posts to the right until it isdirectly above the ground parking space as shown in FIG. 2.

[0021] When the car is to be retrieved from the upper deck, the platformis moved with the roller posts to the left until the right edge of theplatform clears the left side of the ground parking space. The platformis then moved down along the roller posts until it reaches the ground.The car then can be driven away.

[0022] The benefit of this design is that there is no sacrifice of theground space utility around the existing parking space.

[0023] This design can be used for parking application as describedabove. It can also be used for multi-level storage of other goods. Thedesign can be used for storing very small items, where motor and skyrail car can be eliminated and other types of driving mechanism can beused. It can also be used for large storage with no limitation on thesize, such as for furniture storage. The concept applies to differentsizes of application. Proper engineering design needs to be done foreach specific application.

[0024] The detailed designs for the platform, the roller post, the arm,the motor driven mechanisms and the safety measures are commonly knownin the industry and will not be discussed here.

The claims are:
 1. A parking or storage device that is composed of twomajor parts. One part is a platform that can be moved up and down alongtwo roller posts. The other part is the two horizontal arms supported bya fixed structure on one end, and each connected to a roller post by amoving mechanism; the roller posts can be moved left and right along thehorizontal arm. With this design, the bending force on the “arm”incurred by the weight carried on the platform would not change with theposition of the roller post. When the car or goods is on the upper deckand directly over the ground parking/storage space, there will be onlysets of posts sitting at one end and inside of the existing groundparking space. Nothing sticks out to the other end of the groundparking/storage space.
 2. The said horizontal arm is equipped with a skyrail car driven by a motor.
 3. The farthest position that the sky railcar can travel to the left is by a distance equal to the width of theroller post from the left end of the arm.
 4. Each said roller post isconnected to the sky rail car.
 5. Other moving mechanism can also beused to move the platform and the roller posts.